Second, they don't want to find anything, because they leave each day without Hazmat suits and decontam equipment.
The REAL DEAL: Kofi's Klowns
Iraqi inspectors before and after visit of docile "inspectors".
Bush: Iraq Inspections 'Not Encouraging'
Add White House - AP to My Yahoo! By SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) warned Iraq's Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) that he has until a Sunday deadline to prove he is serious about averting war. After the first week of United Nations (news - web sites) weapons inspections, Bush said: "So far, the signs are not encouraging."
"The inspectors are not in Iraq to play hide-and-seek with Mr. Saddam Hussein," the president said Monday in a get-tough speech at the Pentagon (news - web sites), his first extensive comment on the United Nations weapons inspections since they got underway last week.
"In the inspections process, the United States will be making one judgment: Has Saddam Hussein changed his behavior of the last 11 years? Has he decided to cooperate willingly and comply completely, or has he not? So far the signs are not encouraging," Bush said.
As evidence, he noted that Saddam's regime has recently fired upon American and British pilots patrolling no-fly zones over Iraq and has responded to United Nations disarmament demands with "protests and falsehoods."
"On or before the eighth of December, Iraq must provide a full and accurate declaration of its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs," Bush said, referring to a deadline established by the U.N. Security Council resolution unanimously approved last month.
"That declaration must be credible and complete — or the Iraqi dictator will have demonstrated to the world once again that he has chosen not to change his behavior," Bush said.
Making clear that the consequence would be war, the president added:
"The temporary peace of denial and looking away from danger would only be a prelude to broader war and greater horror. America will confront gathering dangers early before our options become limited and desperate."
Bush spoke at a Pentagon ceremony where he also signed legislation authorizing the $355.5 billion that he requested — and received earlier this year — for the military.
Across the country, Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) rounded out the White House's one-two punch at Saddam with a similar speech to 1,500 Air National Guard leaders meeting in Denver.
Cheney aimed to link the popular post-Sept. 11, 2001 war on terrorism and Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaida terror network to today's campaign against Iraq.
Cheney said that, given the chance, al-Qaida would join outlaw regimes like Iraq to get weapons of mass destruction.
"That's why confronting the threat imposed by Iraq is not a distraction from the war on terror, it is absolutely crucial to winning the war on terror. The war on terror will not be won until Iraq is completely and verifiably deprived of weapons of mass destruction," Cheney said.
Cheney told the military leaders that the campaign could take years.
"This campaign may not be finished on our watch, but it must and it will be waged on our watch," Cheney said.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said Bush will not himself review the Iraqi disclosure due on Sunday.
The timing of any subsequent action — diplomatic, military or otherwise — "will be determined by the president," said Fleischer. "... Saddam Hussein will have to figure out how long the United States intends to go along until we find out what Saddam Hussein is really doing."
The coordinated speeches by Bush and Cheney comes one week into the United Nations weapons inspections underway in Iraq.
A senior White House official said Iraq has not been as cooperative with inspectors as early reports suggest. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not elaborate.
White House officials said they do not expect Bush to take immediate action against Saddam after the deadline, even if Iraq claims not to have weapons of mass destruction. Instead, the administration is prepared to share its intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs with inspectors to help verify and challenge whatever disclosures Saddam makes Dec. 8, officials said.
Fleischer said Bush is not yet making any judgments on whether those inspections will be successful in disarming Saddam peacefully. Should the inspections route fail, Bush has vowed that the United States will lead allies into war to rid Iraq of any weapons of mass destruction.
"The president is skeptical that Saddam Hussein will comply and it's too soon to say. One week is not adequate time," Fleischer said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=544&e=1&u=/ap/20021202/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq
WELL dUUUH! IT'S SADDAM!!
Why assume Bush doesn't already know where many of the weapons are stored ? Will the Iraqi's admit where they are ? Of course not. Will Bush let them have a pass ? Of course not.
Watch how this war is fought. It will be fought for the final effect, not for a traditional sense. The final effect is to have Saddam removed. It will be accomplished by removing his weapons. The "war" will be fought by Bush in a way that removes each storage location either until Saddam relents and gets honest (which isn't likely) or until he is removed, which is likely.
If is very unlikely Dubya started this plan to take down Saddam without evidence as least as good as what we had against Castro in the Cuban missile crisis. How could anyone think that a president of the US would make all this commitment based on faith in some dippy UN or that SM inspectors? That is not even close to the way Bush confronts a problem.
The after action reports to congress on the Gulf War by Norm Schwartzkopf, show that Norm's greatest fear was that Saddam would attack our troops in Saudi before we had the force in place to defeat him. It was also true that it took nearly 6 months to get that force in place. We have only marginally expanded our transportation abiltities. We are most certainly playing for time.
Our plan has to give Saddam the false belief that he can avoid our attack right, up until the time we attack. Keep him busy hiding stuff and writing volumes of face reports while we build up our forces. We would want him to believe we don't have the proof. He certainly believes that if we do have it, we will attack. If he were certain we had proof, he would certainly start a terrorist counter attack now.
That is not what we want. The people planning this Iraqi action had to prepare the American people. They had to devise mickey mouse games that gave Saddam the false belief he can win. Saddam has to think he can win right up until the United States has enough force in place to assure total and complete victory. Don't forget have our civilian population here at home protected also. That means checking tons of people in U.S. That takes time.
When we have our ducks in a row would be the time to go to the UN and present the complete and total evidence, the USA has been sitting on for a year. Following that presentation, it seems likely Bush would order the US forces to start the attack following some short time period. He would then give teh UN that time period to approve the attack. The UN would have the choice to approve or dis-approve. They would not be able to decide if we attack or not.
If you go back to Dubya's UN speech that was the choice he gave the UN. You do it or we will .. he said. At that time Bush did not ask for proof. He did not say if you can't find proof we won't attack. He said you take him down or I will.
This SCREAMS to me that the USA has plenty of proof any time it wants to present it.
I would say anyone who thinks our actions depend on the UN inspector side show or Saddam Report has not been paying attention for the last 2 years.
Common Tator....this was a remarkable piece of intuitive thinking.
FP
Lots of candy-canes and gumdrops, but no WMDs here Mr. Hussein!
